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Chapters (40)
  1. FOREWORD
  2. RAILROAD OF DEATH
  3. REFERENCE LIST:
  4. Railroad of Death
  5. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION (1948)
  6. INTRODUCTION
  7. PART ONE: SINGAPORE
  8. CHAPTER 1
  9. CHAPTER 2
  10. CHAPTER 3
  11. CHAPTER 4
  12. CHAPTER 5
  13. PART TWO: RAILROAD OF DEATH
  14. CHAPTER 6
  15. CHAPTER 7
  16. CHAPTER 8
  17. CHAPTER 9
  18. CHAPTER 10
  19. CHAPTER 11
  20. CHAPTER 12
  21. CHAPTER 13
  22. PART THREE: BASE CAMPS AND LIBERATION
  23. CHAPTER 14
  24. CHAPTER 15
  25. CHAPTER 16
  26. CHAPTER 17
  27. CHAPTER 18
  28. CHAPTER 19
  29. CHAPTER 20
  30. APPENDIX ONE:
  31. APPENDIX TWO:
  32. APPENDIX THREE:
  33. APPENDIX FOUR:
  34. APPENDIX FIVE:
  35. APPENDIX SIX:
  36. APPENDIX SEVEN:
  37. APPENDIX EIGHT:
  38. APPENDIX NINE:
  39. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  40. And The Dawn Came Up Like Thunder

Q. Is this different from food that [is] received by the prisoners-of-war who were well?

A. We made these things different from the ration to be given to the healthy prisoners-of-war.

Q. Healthy prisoners-of-war? Did the sick prisoners-of-war receive any special food?

A. They were not receiving any special supply.

Q. Why did you not give some special food to the sick?

A. In the Japanese Army there is no special food or ration for the sick. Therefore we didn’t give them any special ration.

Q. Don’t you think it might have helped to get some prisoners-of-war well if they had cooked the rations and prepared it in an easier way, a more fluid way, so that the ill may as well eat more easily and digest it more easily?

A. The prisoners-of-war were cooking their own food and they were cooking in such a way serve their own taste. We could not do anything else.

Q. Did the sick receive any extra water?

A. The sick were receiving as much as they wanted.

Q. How do you account for the fact that Mr Yardley states that in his evidence that he was sick the whole journey on board the Hakusan Maru that he received no extra water or any extra food other than the normal ration the prisoners-of war who were well received?

A. What do you mean by special food apart from the water?

Q. Well, any as I have said before, any soft gruel or any rice, any of the food cooked in a way that would be suitable for the sick to eat.

A. If Mr Yardley was not receiving such things I think that was the responsibility of the prisoners-of-war themselves. The prisoners were responsible for making special food for the sick. I never ordered them not to give any such special food to Mr Yardley . . .

Q. When you travelled from Thailand . . . [with] the prisoners-of-war, what state of health were they in?

A. When they came from Thailand they were more or less in a proper state of health but since they were working more than one year on the Thai Railway Road they were looking tired . . .

Q. How long was the voyage from the time they embarked, the time they disembarked, the approximate number of days?

A. About 70 days.

Q. Did you consider it your duty as draft commander of this draft of approximately 750 prisoners-of-war to get them all to Japan in as healthy a condition as possible?

A. That was my duty.

Q. Do you think that you did everything in your part to keep these prisoners-of-war as healthy as possible?

A. I am confident that I did everything I could.

Judgement

At 1400 hours on the 11th of September 1947 the Court re-assembles pursuant to adjournment. Present the same President and Members as on the 10th of September 1947.

FINDINGS OF THE COURT

(Court) Ship Master Odake Bunji, the Court find you guilty of the first Charge.